. >> reporter: when he was a child getting a catholic education and the roaring -- everyone seems to have a job and the stock market was creating a whole new class of millionaires. these were the days of prohibition. that 13 year period when a constitutional amendment made alcoholic drinks illegal. of course the law was widely ignored. perhaps nowhere as openly as in the mission district. frank quinn remembers when someone asked his uncle where he could get a drink in the neighborhood. >> my uncle said to him. do you know where the funeral parlor is down in the block. he said yes, he said well that's the only place here where you can't get a drink. >> reporter: we looked at a building that was once a speak easy or as it was called a blind pig. >> if you wanted to get into one of these places they were illegal. how did you get in? >> you would just walk in. >> reporter: you didn't have to have a special password. >> no, and the policemen -- >> reporter: how did you know you weren't a cop? >> they didn't because the police were part of it. >> reporter: by the time tim finished high sch